Kisumu, 20/02/2008
       By Leo Odera Omolo
  
  Farmers in Western Kenya, especially those farming in the North Rift Region, are facing a planting crisis following recently increased fuel prices and the high cost of all other farm inputs.
  
  Reports emerging from Eldoret town say that soaring prices coupled with the effect of the post-election violence have forced some large and small scale farmers to consider abandoning the cultivation of maize and wheat for fear of incurring heavy losses.
  
  Farmers now want the government to re-introduce the guaranteed minimum return (GMR) loaning scheme policy to cushion them in case of crop failure.
  
  One prominent farmer in Uasin Gishu district, Mr. Said Chepkeitany, remarked “we are likely to experience low harvest this season due to high cost of production.”
  
  The shortest GMR loan scheme policy, which protected the farmers against incurring losses following poor harvests, was scrapped by the government several years ago leaving farmers with no alternative but to take risks in agricultural investment.
  
  Fears by the farmers have been confirmed by the Agricultural Ministry’s field officials who admitted rising production costs would interrupt this season’s planting programming.
  
  The price of fertilizers like double ammonium phosphate has increased from Kshs 2600 to Kshs 3400 while diesel has increased from Kshs 77.29 to Kshs 82.24 per litre.
  
  The North Rift region covering Trans-Nzoia and Uasin Gishu districts have long been recognized as the granaries of Kenya. The region produced 12 million bags of maize and 3.7 million bags of wheat last year.
  
  The farmers in the region were motivated to increase the acreage under production for maize and wheat following the disbursement of Kshs 482 million by the government through the Agricultural Finance Cooperation (AFC) to boost productivity.
  
  The revival of agricultural mechanizations through tractor hire services and the revitalization of the Kenya Seed Company and AFC have also enabled farmers to increase crop acreage.
  
  The reports also paint a gloomy picture for milk production in the country indicating that dairy farmers and several milk processing companies are also strugging to keep up with milk demand in the country.
  
  The low milk supply is due to the post-election violence that characterized the milk-producing Rift Valley.

  
  The company’s branch manager Rosemary Aloo was recently quoted by the local press saying “our production process has been revised to match the milk supplies we receive from our outlets in the Province.”  She added that “a bulk of our suppliers in the region have been affected by the violence.”
  
  Although the relatively calm central Province has provided the lifeline supply, it is being fought for between the big players in the dairy industry–Spin Knit Dairy, New KCC and Brookeside Dairy–as well as by other small-scale processors that dot the province.
  
  Statistics from the Kenya Dairy Board, the market regulator, shows that, by last year, milk production had grown by almost 100 percent over a period of four years.
  
  Production in the country stood at 3.8 billion litres annually compared to 2.8 billion litres in the year 2004.
  
  However, this year’s production is expected to take a nosedive in the first quarter. The majority of farmers engaged in milk production in the Rift valley Province have been displaced from their farms and have had dairy cattle stolen.
  
  Over the past two years, Kenya has developed as a net exporter of milk mainly to its neighbours in the region and to Middle Eastern countries. Of the total sales revenue for family businesses, about 10 percent originates from export sales.
  
  
  Ends
  Leooderaomolo@yahoo.com